How much energy? you ask. Well, the researchers based their estimates on what current technology is able to extract – not any hypothetical future advances. Even so, it turns out that there is three million megawatts of potential geothermal energy below the surface of the United States. That’s ten times the energy of every coal plant in the United States online today.

Mock The Movie moves to Friday this week due to prior engagements tonight by some of our core constituents. This week we’ll be defending the Earth (well, Japan) from starfish-shaped aliens in Attack From Space!

Let the snark roll on twitter, but keep in mind… this movie was made in 1959. In your @MockTM tweets try not to focus on special effects (or the lack thereof). Instead, focus on the plot, characters, acting, story development, etc.

The starfish shaped aliens are called Spherions, by the way. What, did you think that made them spherical or something? Shows what you know about space aliens!

Given the post I just put up, this one (from two nights ago) is relevant and timely. Three hundred teen suicides because kids don’t realize that it gets better? That’s obscene. Do something about it. MAKE it better, for the kids, now, while they’re most vulnerable.

Way to go, you jackbooted thugs, you fascist assholes. I hope you feel really big now. These people were trying to rescue the 24 year old two-tour Iraq War veteran you just shot in the face with a tear gas canister — fracturing his damned skull, by the way — and you have the gall to toss a flashbang at their feet. The lack of empathy is staggering. I hope the 1% is willing to bring you into their ranks, because taking orders from them and oppressing peaceful protesters in such a violent manner is simple cowardice. Cowardice that should be rewarded monetarily, because you’re part of the very 99% whose throats you’re stomping otherwise.

Every protest that fights the establishment will have casualties. I hope this guy pulls through, because he’s given his body for his country three times over. It would be beyond sad if the assholes who took his life happened to be countrymen fighting for the rich.

The Secular Student Alliance just hit the front page of Reddit with a request to have people join their Facebook group, in an effort to outdo the Campus Crusade for Christ. Prior to going frontpage, it was the highest voted in the Atheism subreddit, but immediately upon hitting the front page, the religious Redditors have been hammering it with downvotes which threatens to bury it outright, even on the subreddit.

If you have a Reddit account, I strongly encourage you hit that first link and upvote that post, to buffer some of the pushback this simple request is getting, and stop this request from getting buried outright. Reddit’s a (slightly problematic) democracy, and like a democracy, it’s important to get out the votes. Especially when some people are so defensive of their worldviews that they’re willing to build scripts and bots to bury things they personally don’t like. I’m not saying this is necessarily happening here, but it’s happened very often on Youtube, so it’s well possible someone’s stuffing the ballot boxes.

Details: becoming an annual member of the SSA ($35 for adults, $10 for students) counts as a donation. We’re trying to ride the more than double popularity we’ve achieved in the last 10 hours and hope to fill this match within the week.

Thank all of you so much for all the help and for essentially letting us hijack your blogs today!

Important things to put in the post:

1. Encourage people to like the SSA facebook page. We want more likes than Campus Crusade for Christ (or CRU as they are now called), the biggest college Christian org.
2. Encourage people to upvote the reddit post so we keep the influx of new traffic.
3. Encourage them to throw something in the coffers of the SSA either by joining as a member (they can be young, old, green, purple, doesn’t matter) or by donating. In order to support this generation of atheist activists we need the support of the previous generation. Wish there had been an SSA at your school? Here’s the chance to make it happen for someone else.
4. We have grown in # of affiliates 31% over last year, the high school program has more than doubled in ten months. We’re presently on 314 campuses. We rule. 😛

Via MSNBC, 285 girls have legally changed their names from “Unwanted” to names with a touch more dignity.

In shedding names like “Nakusa” or “Nakushi,” which mean “unwanted” in Hindi, some girls chose to name themselves after Bollywood stars like “Aishwarya” or Hindu goddesses like “Savitri.” Some just wanted traditional names with happier meanings, such as “Vaishali” or “prosperous, beautiful and good.”

Via Feministe, it seems Stephen Greenstreet, the one-man brain-trust behind the Hot Chicks of Occupy Wall Street tumblr (no link this time — not even a nofollow), thinks he’s contributing to the movement by attracting dudes with erections. Erections that legitimize rape.

To protect the privacy of people who are Steven’s Facebook friends and because I just don’t feel like digging my heels in on this one, I’ve taken down the screenshot of Steven’s Facebook page. On that page, Steven linked to his “Hot Chicks of Occupy Wall Street” video, and added, “The way me and [a colleague] contribute to the movement.” A friend of his comments, “Way to legitimize the movement, Steve.” Steven replies, “An erection legitimizes anything.” His friend replies, “Even rape?” Steven Greenstreet says, “It probably wouldn’t be rape without one.”